Women brigade helps Railway Protection Force man ladies coaches
A study of the crime pattern reveals that commuters are most vulnerable between 10pm and 6am.
Chennai: Beware Chennaiites! You are mistaken if you thought that ‘artful’ pickpockets go for the kill only when there is a mad rush on suburban trains.
A study of the crime pattern during the last few years by Chennai RPF has revealed that commuters, particularly women, were most vulnerable between 10pm and 6am.
Most of the crimes on trains happened during those eight hours.
Chennai RPF, which started manning the ladies cum first class coaches at the front and rear of every EMU in the division, has received overwhelming response to sakthi padai, a network of 150 regular woman travellers who alert every wrongdoing aboard the EMUs and suggest changes to optimize passenger safety.
These women travellers were chosen from 300 regular passengers with whom RPF personnel interacted and collected feedback during last month.
A woman RPF constable has been entrusted the task of randomly choosing at least five sakthi padai members covering all suburban train route and collecting their feedback daily, S. R. Gandhi, senior divisional security commissioner, Chennai Division said adding that this is in addition to the complaints sent to rpfsakthipadai@gmail.com.
In fact, when this scribe accompanied RPF patrol teams aboard a Beach-Tambaram EMU during late hours recently, most women passengers admitted to spotting a RPF constable aboard and sought to prevent footboard travel, which, they suspect, accounts for most of the crime and harassment.
Most women who gave their feedback have appealed to end the menace of transgenders seeking alms.
Likewise, a three-member special team, which was constituted under the instruction of chief security commissioner V. K. Dhaka, supervises stations like Putlur, Tirumullaivoil, Pattaravakkam, Korattur, Tirusulam, Washermanpet, Tondiarpet and Kaverapetttai, identified as most prone to crime in Chennai railway division.